Welcome!
Aquaponics is gardening and fish raising together in a way that takes advantage of the naturally symbiotic relationship between them. The plants around a lake aren't just lush because of the water, but also the nutrients provided by the fish.
This blog is as much journal as anything. If you want to learn more I recommend you start at the beginning. Otherwise just skim and enjoy the pictures!

Sunday, September 11, 2011

2011/09/11 - A long overdue update

Sorry for the delay, folks! Life has gotten a little busy. :-)

On my last post I had harvested a bunch of tomatoes, then blanched, peeled, seeded, and frozen them. In the weeks since then I've harvested cucumbers and made them into bread and butter pickles (a big hit!), got the cattle trough up onto cinderblocks, and removed the cucumber and tomato plants entirely. I simply couldn't deal with having cucumber vines all over the ground and hiding all the tomatoes from me. I also pulled out the Brussels sprouts since the earwigs had so completely destroyed all the foliage.

In the process of pulling out the plants, I did put branches containing ripe tomatoes into the trough for sorting through. After sorting, the tomatoes I brought into the house were approximately 9 pounds worth. And please remember, these were tomatoes I didn't even know I had because they were buried in the center of the plants or behind the cucumber vines!

I've been focusing less on the garden lately, and more on getting ready for Paul to move in. But I still enjoy spending time out there every day feeding the fish and enjoying the peaceful sound of water falling.

And now, on to the pics!

Armenian cucumber hiding:

A batch of cucumber found:

One that I evidently failed to find for WAY too long:

Labor Day Weekend Saturday's harvest, when I thought I'd gotten everything ripe I possibly could, to take to my mom:

The tomatoes and cucumbers trying very hard to pull the entire trellis over:

Trough up on cinderblocks, ready to be hooked up to plumbing:

So the day after that "I'll harvest everything I can for my Mom" picture, I start to pull the plants out, not expecting to find much that's ripe in there. Boy was I wrong.

Tomatoes that had been hiding behind vines:

Just the ripe ones that fell as I was pulling the plants out:

Finally, a clean bed!

Branches of ripe stuff set aside for sorting:

Some of my NINE POUNDS of found tomatoes sorted from that bed:

I gave a bunch to my new neighbors and took some to my coworkers. But the rest I roasted in the oven then mixed with garlic and basil. Those were bagged and frozen for later use in some kind of saucy lusciousness.

And now, to figure out what to plant for fall. Replacement brussels sprouts, broccoli, and Paul wants a cayenne pepper plant. And then... we'll just have to see!

Thanks, Jon!Unfortunately, with the wind knocking it over, fiance moving in, holidays, and a month of houseguests, I've been neglecting both blog and AP system.The fish are ready to harvest and we'll probably do that when fiance's sister visits next month (she's a champion fish cleaner). If the weather is nice this weekend we'll likely finish the raft bed and get some leafy stuff in there.Mostly right now I'm hiding until my life gets a bit less chaotic. But I promise I will be updating again soon!Thanks for checking in. :-)